ESPN Recruiting Nation Football

Before every huddle breaks, Ricky Powers has his Akron (Ohio) Buchtel football team yell the same phrase.

“Play fast,” the Griffins scream.

Chris Davis and Ali Gross plan on doing just that, but it’s not just limited to the high school level as the Buchtel athletes are starting to get some big looks from Division I programs.

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Can Toledo hang with the likes of Louisville, Michigan State, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin?

When it comes to recruiting defensive end Anthony Clark (Akron, Ohio/Buchtel) the Rockets can.

Toledo was the first to offer the 6-foot-4, 253-pound Clark, which has helped the Rockets tremendously.

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At 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds and with hands the size of masonry bricks, it’s easy to see that Jamal Davis II (Canton, Ohio/McKinley) has some growing to do.

With an uncle that’s 6-8, the junior outside linebacker is projected to reach 6-4 and fill out to 245 pounds.

That has schools such as Bowling Green, Kent State, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State and Oklahoma State drooling.

The Falcons, Golden Flashes and Cardinals have all offered him as well as Buffalo, Toledo and Western Michigan.

But there are three schools coming around that seem to have Davis’ attention at the moment.

The junior has seen Michigan, Michigan State and Louisville and wants to see them again as well as maybe taking a trip out to Oklahoma State.

Here’s what Davis said about the Wolverines, Spartans and Cardinals:

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Cornerback Marcus Whitfield (Massillon, Ohio/Washington) posted a 99.87 at the SPARQ Combine a few months ago at his school. His teammate, tight end Beau Huffman, landed a camp-best 119.58 the same day.

Since that February morning, their recruitments have taken off.

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Cleveland Glenville always has a few young stars, and the summer camp circuit usually helps uncover them. That’s when Matt Draper thought he would get his first offer.

The 2015 inside linebacker was confident he would get one at some point over these next few months, but he thought it would come during the summer at the earliest. But Louisville came with an offer this week for the 6-foot, 188-pound sophomore.

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Westerville (Ohio) South tight end Darryl Long knows where he is going and will let the public know in the coming days.

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Jerome Baker (Cleveland/Benedictine) was told his recruitment would start blowing up after a successful sophomore season.

The 2015 running back/linebacker wasn’t expecting anything like this, however. And he surely wasn’t expecting the offers to come from such heavy hitters in the college football world, either.

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Kentucky is planning to visit Nilijah Ballew (Cincinnati/Walnut Hills) on Monday. The coaches might want to reconsider.

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Louisville is starting to put more an emphasis on recruiting Ohio, and the Cardinals landed a prospect from the Buckeye State on Saturday.

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Ja’Merez Bowen (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Shaker Heights) has seen his recruiting blow up recently.

With nine offers already, the 6-foot-3, 290-pound Bowen is sifting through things and is starting to put everything in perspective.

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Pat Fitzgerald has signed an offensive lineman from Ohio in each of the last three recruiting classes. If all goes well between now and signing day 2014, he will make it a fourth consecutive class with a lineman from the Buckeye State.

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Mike Edwards (Cincinnati/Winton Woods) has more than a dozen offers, which is enough for him to start making decisions on which will be in his top group in the coming weeks.

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T.J. Harrell (Tampa, Fla./Tampa Catholic) is going to be leaning heavily on visits.

The 6-foot, 197-pound two-way athlete has a bunch of offers, but to distinguish them, he's going to have to see what the school is like behind the brochures he gets in the mail.

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